6 Waterfalls

Hey everyone,

This weekend has been another exciting weekend. I went on a hike with about 15 other people from the island. It was a hike to 6 different waterfalls on the interior of the island. Our guide was a ripped 48 year old and he was chain smoking the entire hike. He also never broke a sweat when I was sweating more than I have ever sweat before. He was also one of the best hikers I've ever seen. The hike was over wet and slippery rocks and down wet and steep hills. He never missed a step and was incredibly fast. I fell down like 5 or 6 times in the mud and I was completely soaked by the end of the hike. The hike was probably the best hike that I have ever done. It was not the hardest hike that I've done but it was the best. Here is a picture of our guide.


The waterfalls were amazing but my internet connection is painfully slow. So I will show you a picture of the best/last waterfall that we went to. The last waterfall I was not able to bring my camera because it was not accessible by land. We had to swim up a narrow channel through a swift moving river. When you got to the other side there was a beautiful waterfall that was pouring out of a cave in the rock wall. It was amazing. Here is a picture of me in front of the waterfall.



This week my local made spear gun will be completed. Me, Ciran, Johnathan, and Pete will be going out to Joy Island and spending the night there next Saturday. We are only bringing water, rice, spear guns, machetes, and a pot to cook food. Hopefully we can spear some fish or else it will be a boring meal for dinner. The island has many coconut trees so I would imagine that I will be trying to climb one to get some coconut milk for us. I will update the blog with some more pictures when the internet connection improves. I hope everyone is having a great
end of summer and getting ready for fall. Unfortunately...I will still be in summer..for the next year. hahaha. I will enjoy the endless summer here on Pohnpei. However, I will miss the skiing this winter. But, there will be plenty of time next year to school all of the family members on the slope.

Love,

Tyler

Hey everyone,

The past two weeks here have been very action packed and full of surprises. I started teaching last week. So far I have given a diagnostic test to my students and realized that they are at a much lower level than I initially imagined. Negative numbers and fraction are a serious problem. Most of their former teachers did not stress these at all and encouraged the students to use calculators. Unfortunately some students are having trouble with addition and subtraction. Today in class I told them not that they can't use calculators all year and they could not believe it. Pretty crazy. But, everything is going well. I'm doing my best to plan to teach them through the beginning of Algebra II. So...I have a long way to go.
Last weekend was one of the most awesome weekends I've had here. I hiked up to a waterfall in Nett. It was about a 1.5 hour hike and it was well worth it. It was unreal. When we arrived we hiked down to the bottom of the falls.




It was beautiful. After the whole group of us swam in the lower part of the waterfall we climbed up to the top where there was a large pool with a cliff.
If you know me at all.. you probably know what I did.





The waterfall hike was on Saturday. On Sunday I was able to go to Nahlap Island to supervise a childrens surf camp sponsored by Pohnpei Surf Club. Nahlap Island is one of the small outer islands. In order to get a free trip to this island I had to swim around the kids when they were surfing. It was a pretty sweet deal. I did not realize that they get some pretty large waves beyond the reef at Nahlap. When I was swimming around I found myself dodging waves that were bigger than anything that I've ever seen back in New Jersey.
I was also able to do some snorkeling on part of the outer reef. It was probably the best snorkeling I've ever done. Even better than the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I was able to swim around with a reef shark that was about 4 feet long. It was really awesome being in the water with a shark. Don't worry Mom..the reef sharks are very docile.
I spent the rest of the afternoon at Nahlap taking a nap in a hammock and hanging out with the rest of the volunteers.




This weekend I will be taking a trip out to another outer island called Black Coral. I will be spending Saturday night there. I should have some really nice pictures to put up for next week.


That's it for now.

Tyler

A Sweet Picture

Hey everyone,

Last night I had the opportunity of going to the nicest hotel on the island. We just finished orientation so our field director brought us out for dinner. The picture speaks for itself. Enjoy.

Tyler

Week 2/3

Hey everyone,

So Ive been here for over two weeks now and Ive just completed my orientation. I begin teaching next week. I’m pretty nervous but excited at the same time. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I get to move out of my host family’s house and into my own place. I’m going to be living in a smaller village just outside of Kolonia. The house is pretty big and ill be living with two other volunteers.
This past weekend I was able to do some hiking, exploring, and snorkeling all around the island. On Saturday we climbed up Sokehs Ridge which overlooks the airport and Kolonia. The picture below is me at the top. It was pouring the entire way up and that is why I am completely soaked. After hiking to the top of the ridge we were able to do some exploring in the jungle. We found some old Japanese bunkers and cannons from WWII. If you look below you can see the huge guns that are just sitting in the middle of the jungle. It was really cool getting to see these giant cannons and explore some of the bunkers where Japanese soldiers were hiding. In some of the bunkers you can see some Japanese writing on the walls.
On, Sunday I went to one of the outer islands of Pohnpei. My host family has a cousin who lives on one of the islands and he invited us to go visit. So we got to do some great snorkeling and hiking in the jungle. When I was snorkeling in the deeper water I ran into a manta ray. It was not a huge one but it was really cool getting to swim next to a manta ray. The area where I was swimming was a breeding ground/ feeding area for the manta rays so they tend to hang around there. The family who lives on the island has invited us to come back sometime this week. Hopefully ill be able to learn how to spear fish or something like that.
I guess that’s it for now. Ill have a more reliable internet connection in about a week so ill try to get some more pictures on here.

Tyler